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Suburban America: Why the Suburbs Are Here to Stay

shutterstock 204649942
shutterstock 204649942

The United States is an overwhelmingly suburban country, and there’s a case to be made that suburban America is here to stay. For the past seventy years, most of us have lived our lives in low-density landscapes dominated by single family homes and strip malls, all of which are reached by zipping around in our private automobiles.

While many consider New York City to be our most iconic city, it isn’t exactly representative of most Americans’ way of life – a better example might be Los Angeles, Dallas or Orlando, which are automobile oriented suburban places. Whether our suburban reality is on track to change in the future is heavily disputed by many.

Cities make a comeback

A generation ago, almost every city center in America was in bad shape, after wealth largely left downtown areas and settled in newly built suburban communities. That trend has largely reversed itself, and American downtowns have made a strong comeback economically. Our historic city centers in many corners of the country have regained their vibrancy, and become incredibly liveable places.

Young people, especially the college-educated, have demonstrated their love for walkable cities with our recent migration patterns. Vortexes of employment like New York City and San Francisco have attracted throngs of young people, and even cities that were pronounced dead for all intents and purposes like Pittsburgh, have had their fortunes reversed through an influx of college-educated residents.

But in the midst of our urban renaissance, our suburbs have continued to grow unabated, reaching further and further into rural oblivion. In some places, especially in the Sunbelt, cities are essentially nonstop run-on suburbs.

While experts bicker over how to differentiate an urban environment from a suburban environment for statistical purposes, most agree that new development in America is overwhelmingly suburban. Rapid suburbanization continues, in spite of some wishful thinking from urban enthusiasts.

Suburbs are still king

When we imagine our future, our visions tend to an emphasize urban living, but trends don’t appear to be changing. In reality, suburbs are still at the center of economic gravity in this country. More than 80 percent of job growth in recent years has been in suburbs. Sunbelt cities are once again booming, as people flee the high cost of living in our older flagship cities.

Places like Tampa, Phoenix, San Antonio and Oklahoma City are growing at a much faster clip than our historic cities. If you’re familiar with major cities in the South, many of those places barely have urban cores. Even as we wade deeper into the 21st century, the suburbs are still king of the American way of life.

Downtown means business, picket fences for everyone else

Even as suburbs dominate our existence, research points to much better job quality in urban areas. Employment in downtown cores tend to be better paying and higher skilled. There are also efficiency gains associated with density; evidently people in cities tend to be more productive than their counterparts working in the suburbs. Anecdotally, it is easy to see that some of the most important work in America is carried out in our city centers.

For many, quality of life seems to be better in urban settings as well. There is a case to be made for the richness of city living, especially for the young, the childless, and the creative class. Suburbs are visually appealing, but they’re extremely dull, and mind-numbingly homogeneous. Nevertheless, the insane cost of living in our flagship cities means that the bulk of people are confined to a suburban existence.

The numbers seem to suggest that cities are far too expensive and crowded for most people. As long as they can reasonably commute to their place of employment, most folks would prefer suburban living. Accordingly, statistical trends are revealing a new found love for the suburbs. As millennials age, they’re finding cities are completely unaffordable, and they’re headed for the suburbs just like their parents did.  

Our suburban self-driving future

What does the future look like? For some, they seem to be under the impression that Americans will abandon their suburban lifestyles. In my humble opinion, I think new technology will only accelerate suburbanization.

As autonomous cars are rolled out, millions may be enticed into living further away from city centers. If you could be productive during a digitally driven commute, what would stop you from living up to two hours away from the city? You could work through your morning email round-up and team conference call on the road. 

In reality, much to the dismay of many, the trends don’t seem to be pointing in favor of more environmentally friendly living with increased density.

It’s important to remember that the freedom-loving hippies of the 1960s eventually became the conformist suburban Reaganites of the 1980s. While millennials are calling urban areas home more than ever, our country stands to remain solidly suburban. For the older folks who fret about millennial weirdness, fear not, as today’s urban-obsessed hipster is likely to evolve into tomorrow’s suburban, self-driving-Tesla-owning salaryman.

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